Injuries and blame
by MissKluck
Summary: As Sakura is injured during practice Sasuke has to carry her home and ponders about how it is to protect someone and why someone would take the blame of someone else. One-shot. SasuSaku.


Just something quick before the prompt: As I'm sitting here on my summer vacation, working on the outlines for Handcuffed chapter 8 that I made yesterday, I've come to the conclusion that I am very happy that no one of my followers either here, on wattpad or tumblr knows where I live. This is because I'm about to be really cruel, at least I think that I am, and just ask Morgan who has read my outlines, she'll probably agree on that too. So just a fair warning, the drama is not finished yet, nuh-uh, I mean, the cliffhanger that I just made on the latest chapter is kinda foreshadowing it I guess, but I seriously doubt that any of you you're not included Morgan will manage to guess what'll happen next. And I don't know if I should be scared or excited in regards to your reaction.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only this one-shot is mine.

**Injuries and blame**

"I'm so sorry Sasuke-kun!" The pinkette exclaimed for what had to be the fourth time during the last two minutes. A heavy blush adored her cheeks as she meekly stared up at the dark-haired boy carrying her. She had never been this close to him before and she was both excited and nervous for it. She was being carried bridal-style through the forests of Konoha. And while her inner roared in delight, exclaiming how Sasuke was finally theirs, Sakura was also secretly savouring the feeling of Sasuke's arms around her. It felt really comfortable, almost like home.

A "hn" was his only reply to her apologies, but maybe that was just because it was mainly his fault that she was now wounded and he had to carry her. It had happened during target practice, she had been watching him, marvelling at his abilities while trying to copy some of the movements herself to show her own worth. She had failed, however, getting frustrated with herself for failing in front of Sasuke.

Sasuke, on the other hand, didn't know anything about his teammates inner turmoil and hadn't cast more than a few glances her way. Then, as the usual rivalry between him and Naruto went up a notch, Sasuke aimed a kunai for one of Naruto's so as to send it off course. This had worked and he had celebrated his small victory until he saw where the kunai was now headed and heard the shouts of Naruto telling Sakura to look out.

Sakura, not being as fast as Naruto and Sasuke, didn't manage to completely evade the kunai, it striking her in the ankle as she tried to jump away. She had been standing on a lower branch and now, out of balance, tumbled to the ground below. Kakashi, having arrived to check up on his students, was just in time to see the kunai strike his female student, and rushed over to find a shocked Sakura staring down at her ankle where a kunai was embedded just above the bone. There were no tears; just shock and surprise on the pinkette's face, making Kakashi feel proud over Sakura's development so far.

Sasuke and Naruto came over as quickly as they could with Naruto yelling at Sasuke for hurting his "precious Sakura-chan" while Sasuke just stared apathetically at the blonde. However, guilt was evident in his eyes, betraying the otherwise cold demeanour he had.

It's alright Naruto, I just didn't pay enough attention," Sakura answered with a smile, taking the blame as she tried to stand. This failed of course, as she still had the kunai in her foot and putting pressure on it just weakened it even more.

"Now Sakura, don't take blame that isn't yours. Let's just remove that kunai and lightly bind it up for now and then Sasuke, being the one who inflicted the damage, will take you to the hospital and then home."

"What?! No fair Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed angrily. "Besides, I don't want the teme to hurt my Sakura-chan even more!"

"Maybe, but Sasuke has to learn to take responsibility for his actions," Kakashi replied, silently adding: 'and besides, who knows what you might do to your "precious Sakura-chan".'

Sasuke was at this point glaring at the two males, but knew it was his fault, even if Sakura oddly enough had seemed more than ready to take the blame. Kakashi had then quickly pulled out the kunai and roughly bandaged the wound, making Sakura flinch, but she stayed silent as she wanted to appear good in front of Sasuke.

As Sakura still had some trouble standing, Sasuke, determined to just get it all over with so his fan girls wouldn't go crazy, quickly bent down and swooped her up, much to the surprise of the other three.

"S-Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed, blushing at their proximity.

"Kakashi-sensei I still don't like this!" Naruto yelled.

"What, you jealous?" Sasuke smirked, feeling oddly triumphant with Sakura in his arms.

Naruto blushed, but still exclaimed: "Of course I am! It's Sakura-chan, teme! Who wouldn't want her?! Just look at her hair!" This was clearly not the response Sasuke had expected as he almost stumbled a bit, looking weirdly at Naruto. He couldn't stop himself for casting a quickly glance down at Sakura either who was currently still blushing, not looking that comfortable with the compliments before Sasuke caught himself in what he was doing and looked away. "Tch, just look at it and tell me it doesn't look like candyfloss teme! Sweet and flavoury candyfloss, the perfect kind!"

At this the other three all stared weirdly at Naruto as he seemingly daydreamed about Sakura's candyfloss-coloured hair. "Um Naruto, you do remember this is hair we're talking about, right?" Kakashi looked at his student in light amusement.

"Yeah of course but it is still beautiful and if it had been candyfloss I bet it'd be great! Don't you agree teme?" Naruto gave Sasuke a weird, almost daring look at this.

Sasuke blinked. How had they even got into the topic of eating Sakura's hair? Although he hated to admit it, Naruto was kind of right, at least in a weirdly twisted way. He cast a glance back at Sakura again, seeing her discomfort.

"Can we not talk about eating my hair please Naruto?! I swear if I wasn't hurt I'd have pounded you away already," she muttered the last part under her breath.

"Come Naruto, let's practice your speed. Sasuke, you take Sakura to the hospital now," Kakashi started to walk away, getting Naruto to follow with the promise of more training.

Sasuke then turned around and started on the way to the hospital, at first being annoyed with it all as he could have used the time carrying Sakura to train instead. Her apologies didn't do much to help either, just further annoying him. Still, as he walked there in silence, Sakura finally finished with her apologies as she felt she just made things worse, Sasuke couldn't help but notice how nice it felt to carry Sakura. To be trusted to protect her even if he had made a mistake, that he at least in this could succeed without failing.

He continued to ponder about this as they reached the hospital and found a doctor for Sakura. Sasuke, tasked with taking care of her and carrying her home too, stuck with Sakura as she was examined and then healed by a young doctor. He listened to as Sakura claimed the reason for her wound being her own fault rather than his and he ended up feeling more guilty than he had previously. He wouldn't admit it of course, but he just got a bad feeling in his stomach from it.

As the doctor finished off healing Sakura's wound she was told that she should still wait at least until tomorrow morning to put too much pressure on it. And again Sasuke was tasked with helping Sakura, now by the young doctor, who in turn received an angry glare. Sasuke again swooped Sakura up into his arms, carrying her out of the hospital and into town. He remembered that he didn't know where she lived though. He asked, getting a lengthy, but good explanation from Sakura who felt more than happy to be asked such a thing.

Then, as silence creeped upon them again, Sasuke couldn't help but ask: "Why did you take the blame?"

Sakura stared up at him, but he refused to meet her gaze, only staring straight in front of him. "What do you mean?"

Black orbs fixated on her for a moment, making her heart skip, before they focused on the road ahead again. "Why did you claim that it was your own fault that you were hurt? Why take the blame?" Sasuke found himself both genuinely curious and scared about the answer.

Sakura didn't quite know how to answer however. Was Sasuke mad at her? Twirling her fingers she looked down on her lap. "Well, I didn't want you to get the blame because it was an accident and not intentional, and besides, if I had been stronger like you and Naruto and I could have evaded it with ease, right?" Something sounded wrong with her voice, Sasuke knew it, but he didn't know what. He looked down at her again to see her almost sad expression as she refused to meet his gaze.

"It was still no place for you to take the blame, I was the one at fault, I was the one who should have focused more," Sasuke replied, this not only being about the small accident anymore but also linked together with the Uchiha massacre. If only he had been stronger, better, faster. A slight tightening of his grip alerted Sakura and she looked up to find Sasuke's troubled face as well. She didn't know what had caused this, nor what she could do and just settled for what she could.

"It still wasn't your fault Sasuke-kun. The kunai just got out off course in a wrong direction, that's all," she smiled brightly at him, as to show that she didn't blame him. And somehow that smile helped him not blame himself as much either. It was like a light in his growing darkness.


End file.
